Clinician Detail

Robert Gillespie - Biographical Information

Bob Gillespie is Ohio State University Professor Emeritus of string education/string pedagogy. Under Dr. Gillespie’s leadership, Ohio State University received the 2015Institutional String Education Award as the premier string education university in the country. Dr. Gillespie is a past national President of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). He is a frequent guest conductor of All-State, region, and festival orchestras, having appeared in 49 states, Canada, Asia, and throughout Europe. He is coauthor of the Hal Leonard string method book series, Essential Elements for Strings, the leading string instrument teaching series in the US with sales of over eleven million copies. Also, he is co-author of the college text Strategies for Teaching Strings: Building A Successful School Orchestra Program, the String Clinics to Go DVD series, the Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra texts for GIA publications, and the new method series, Rockin’ Strings for Hal Leonard. In summers, well over 1,600 teachers have attended the annual summer OSU String Teacher Workshop, the largest string/orchestra teacher-training workshop in America. In Columbus, he conducts the Columbus Symphony Chamber Strings Youth Orchestra. In 2020, Dr. Gillespie received the Paul Rolland Lifetime Achievement Award from the American String Teachers Association for significant contribution to the field of string teacher education and string pedagogy. In 2022, he received the University of Michigan School of Music Hall of Fame Award in recognition of his distinguished career in music education.